Kids destined for detention: Jakarta

SENIOR Indonesian officials have rejected outright a claim by Kevin Rudd that women and children asylum-seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking could be accommodated in regular housing, rather than behind razor wire in an Australian-funded detention centre.

"We've already got a detention centre (at Tanjung Pinang) and in it we already separate men and women," the Foreign Ministry's most senior official for international security, Sujatmiko, told The Australian.

"Indonesia does not need to be directed how to act. We've gotten the detention centre ready and we've already helped Australia for humanitarian reasons.

"There is commitment from both sides, and Indonesia has the commitment, but Indonesia is not your country."

A spokesman for Mr Rudd said last night that the Prime Minister stood by his earlier comments.

On Wednesday, Mr Rudd told parliament: "The Indonesian authorities have advised the government that women and children will be offe

red the option of staying in a house near the Tanjung Pinang detention facility.

women and children will be offered the option of staying in a house near the Tanjung Pinang detention facility."

The Prime Minister's office did not respond to Dr Sujatmiko's comment last night.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's most senior adviser on international affairs, Dino Patti Djalal, also refused to confirm claims made by Mr Rudd in parliament that the women and children among the 78 Sri Lankans would be housed separately.

After a brief silence in response to the question yesterday, Mr Djalal said simply: "I couldn't comment on that. We're waiting for Australian officials to go on board later today and convince them to come off, because that's all they can do.

"They're on Australian territory so we can't do anything about it. We just hope Australia can get them off the boat."

Mr Rudd's "Indonesia solution" is facing growing opposition from Jakarta, with senior Indonesian officials saying they will not allow their country to become a processing site for Australia-bound boatpeople.

As officials continued to negotiate an end to the standoff with the 78 Sri Lankans aboard the Oceanic Viking, now in its 12th day, there were fresh signs the impasse was taking its toll on relations between Australia and Indonesia.

Yesterday, Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said talk of an "Indonesia solution" to intercept the boats had become a sore in Indonesia.

"We don't want to be caught in the domestic issues in Australia," Mr Faizasyah told The Australian.

"We don't want to be the object of insults from your dynamic, political dynamic, in your country."

Mr Faizasyah said Indonesia has a "bigger picture" when it came to bilateral relations.

"This will certainly irritate Indonesia to be associated with a new form of policy which in your country itself is still being debated," he said.

Asked if it was likely Jakarta would agree to intercept and process more boats, Mr Faizasyah replied: "I don't think so. We are not a country to process refugees because more importantly we are not parties to the refugee convention, so what we are doing (is) only based on our humanitarian perspective."

But Dr Sujatmiko said Indonesian officials had responded promptly to Australian requests to supply food, water and other necessities to the Oceanic Viking, and in facilitating visa arrangements for an expected crew change aboard the vessel.

"We have helped with everything (possible) but we are not going to force (the asylum-seekers) to come off the boat," he said.

Indonesian officials also revealed privately they were furious at the inactivity from Sri Lanka through the crisis, and were talking privately about making Colombo directly responsible for repatriating the next boat load of Tamils they intercept. Strategists in Jakarta believe this would send "one of the strongest signals ... if next time one of these boats is picked up, it just gets sent straight back to Sri Lanka".

Mr Djalal suggested that the move "should give some discouragement to them (asylum-seekers), after making all that effort to get here".

Late yesterday afternoon the Sri Lankan ambassador to Indonesia agreed to visit the 78 Tamils on board the Oceanic Viking and make an offer of repatriation.

"If even half or a quarter of them could be repatriated, that would be a great thing," Mr Djalal said.

Security on the Oceanic Viking was ramped up yesterday, with the Sri Lankans herded behind fluorescent tape and kept under guard by armed Customs officials.

The Customs officers confirmed they had been directed to prevent any communication between journalists and the Sri Lankans.

Fellow Tamil refugee "Alex", on board the Jaya Lestari 5, a wooden cargo boat moored with 251 asylum-seekers at the port of Merak in western Java, said he could confirm that those on board the Oceanic Viking had had "at least one telephone communication with the outside world".

"However, I can tell you that contact is waiting for a follow-up call, so whether it came from one person on board who had a phone but no longer does, I couldn't say."

The Sri Lankans appeared relaxed yesterday, washing on the top deck where they were being guarded early in the morning and then retreating under tarpaulins and below deck when a violent thunderstorm struck in the middle of the day.

THE AUSTRALIAN

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